Accentuate the positive

Guess what? Two negatives make a positive in more than math.

A few minutes ago I started eating my celery with peanut butter, which I fully expected to hate, and I realized that it's not actually that bad. I don't like celery and I don't like creamy P.B. (I mean, REALLY - peanut butter is supposed to be CRUNCHY...), but together, they're bearable and even, dare I say, kind of tasty.

In contemplating my new discovery aloud, my office-mate pointed out that NEG + NEG = POS in a lot of areas. Her example: A lot of people like the beach (even grumpy old me), but how many people like the isolated elements? No one likes the sticky, salty humidity or getting sand all up in their whoosy-whatsits, but you put that sea air and the sand together and you've got yourself a fun time. Go figure.

So now I'm sitting here thinking about other ways I can accentuate the positive by adding the negatives. Take, for example, one of my major pet peeves: stupid people with driver's licenses. Add the first element ("stupid people") and the second element ("driver's license") and you end up with a sum that proves your superiority to two-thirds of the world's population. Who can't see the positive in that?

I think I like this new equation. In fact, I see this resulting in a good number of experiments (possibly videotaped for my readers' viewing pleasure)...

t.